Speaker 1: There's a young boy who wanted to watch the dis
Speaker 1: cut up from our surgery, prosthetic picks, burgery, telling me
Speaker 1: I'm normal, but normal they never really make me see
Speaker 1: they are always painting discriminated. But let me say that
Speaker 1: to all the right now. I don't think our society
Speaker 1: it has a consensus to have people disability have rights
Speaker 1: of transport. We live in a world that wasn't designed
Speaker 1: for us. We have to move through systems and policies
Speaker 1: that were never designed with us and with us in mind.
Speaker 1: My goal is not to make hundred percent of the
Speaker 1: of the French siety physically accessible, but I want of
Speaker 1: all those citizens to just never discriminate someone because of
Speaker 1: his ability or an ability to put to do one
Speaker 1: step after the other. Have choices that we have, opinions,
Speaker 1: I have ideas there we have because I but there
Speaker 1: are limited either way, the world is constructing the winner.
Speaker 1: We are out how we live in a world that
Speaker 1: is not designed for everyone. You don't believe me, whether
Speaker 1: you're disabled or non disabled, I bet you've experienced a moment,
Speaker 1: if not several moments when you felt excluded and frustrated.
Speaker 1: Think about it, ever, use a mouse that's only designed
Speaker 1: for right handed people want a dress without pockets? Ever
Speaker 1: thought about how your smartphone doesn't really sit that comfortably
Speaker 1: in your hand, Struggle to open a piece of packaging
Speaker 1: or read the small print. Well, you're not the only ones.
Speaker 1: Cut homes, the senior vice president of product design at
Speaker 1: Salesforce describes this as a mismatch between the person and
Speaker 1: our environment. For disabled people, these mismatches can be the
Speaker 1: difference between inclusion and exclusion, between being able to work
Speaker 1: or live in poverty, between being able to live a
Speaker 1: life with self respect and a life lived on the
Speaker 1: margins of society, the ability to contribute, communicate, integrate, thrive,
Speaker 1: even survive. It's like Haven Gurmer said to me about
Speaker 1: her experience as a deaf blind student at Harvard. So,
Speaker 1: I work as a disability rates lawyer addressing able wisdom.
Speaker 1: I'm also a writer. I published a memoir called Harving
Speaker 1: The Death bide Woman who Conquered Harbord Law. I did
Speaker 1: not overcome my disability. It was harbor that I had
Speaker 1: to overcome. Able is um. If the world around us
Speaker 1: enabled us instead of disabled us, what would be the consequences?
Speaker 1: The sky would be the limit, but the sad fact is,
Speaker 1: whether it was intentional or not, We've designed a world
Speaker 1: that excludes so many of us, so what can we
Speaker 1: do about it? In this episode, we want to hold
Speaker 1: a conversation about the challenges of living in an inaccessible world.
Speaker 1: Join me as I speak to athletes and activists, designers
Speaker 1: and campaigners from around the world to find out what's
Speaker 1: happening and what is being done to design a world
Speaker 1: that is for everyone. To begin this episode, I spoke
Speaker 1: with a famous architect and wheelchair user from Japan called
Speaker 1: Yoshihiko Kawachi. Person is also I have a proposcripting that
Speaker 1: access to move the issue for of our the maybe
Speaker 1: third dy or four the years. Yoshihiko is one of
Speaker 1: the great global voices for championing universal accessible design and
Speaker 1: has been advising Tokyo on the construction of venues and
Speaker 1: other locations for the Tokyo Paralympics. He gave us some
Speaker 1: background on how he hopes the games will help to
Speaker 1: bring around change in attitudes towards accessibility in the city.
Speaker 1: I am the first person who have got the impact
Speaker 1: with the runnerable maids who easily be found out with
Speaker 1: the concept of universal design. Universal design is the process
Speaker 1: of creating products that are accessible to people with a
Speaker 1: wide range of abilities and disabilities. Universal design typically results
Speaker 1: in an outcome that benefits a variety of users, not
Speaker 1: just people with disability. An example of this would be
Speaker 1: a sidewalk ramp or a cut curb, or even an elevator.
Speaker 1: City which he has that most elevator compared to other
Speaker 1: bigger cities. But our accessibity challenge has us started from
Speaker 1: two thousands, almost all stations had no elevator, so that
Speaker 1: means we have achieved within the twenty years very short. However,
Speaker 1: the program in Japan is the attitudinal issue. At the
Speaker 1: funeral issue means human rights or things of equality or dignity.
Speaker 1: Internal change is required for Japanese people. Internal change it
Speaker 1: means that to look around the environment and what is
Speaker 1: the best way for me to do in this environment,
Speaker 1: like using the elevator or using escalator, were using the stairs.
Speaker 1: Such kind of a smart, clever understanding is not for
Speaker 1: startards in our society. That is a problem. It's hard
Speaker 1: to know yet whether or not the Games has made
Speaker 1: an impact on the attitudes of the Japanese towards disabled people,
Speaker 1: but what we do know is that Tokyo has been
Speaker 1: on a significant journey to improve the infrastructure of the
Speaker 1: city to be more accessible and inclusive, and this is
Speaker 1: in part down to architects like Yoshihiko. In an earlier episode,
Speaker 1: we heard how the Paralympics left the host city Barcelona
Speaker 1: a more accessible city, and we also know that Beijing
Speaker 1: and London saw significant improvements. So we have proof that
Speaker 1: the Games can make an impact on the host cities
Speaker 1: as long as they have the right leadership, motivation and investment.
Speaker 1: I am the emblem of Paris and this is my face.
Speaker 1: My face was born from the union of three symbols,
Speaker 1: the gold medal. So looking ahead, with Paris fast approaching,
Speaker 1: can we expect even more change the Olympic and Paralympic
Speaker 1: plate which brings people together through the values of sport.
Speaker 1: I spoke to former French Paralympian Michael Jeremyz, an adviser
Speaker 1: to the Paris twenty four organizing committee, about Paris, a
Speaker 1: city where less than ten percent of the metro system
Speaker 1: is fully accessible to people with all types of disabilities,
Speaker 1: and moved and moved to London three years ago. So
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a French Frenchman living in London, and I
Speaker 1: mean during my life here, I didn't live Paris because
Speaker 1: and you're like Paris, are born there, and I love Paris,
Speaker 1: I love my country. I asked Michael about his experience
Speaker 1: of living in Paris and London and his hopes for
Speaker 1: Paris four and if he believes the City of Lights
Speaker 1: will ignite the change that we need. Well, there are
Speaker 1: many obstacles in Paris. Paris is not this very old city.
Speaker 1: Paris hasn't been thought and made for disabled people, and
Speaker 1: especially for people in the Wilcha, that's for sure. Whenever
Speaker 1: have at the train station and I travel a lot
Speaker 1: between some puncrustation and gardiner in Paris, there's already a
Speaker 1: big difference, the accessibility, the way we look at me
Speaker 1: when I just ask for my cab, I just que
Speaker 1: and yeah, of course I've experienced many womeny way too
Speaker 1: many times, discrimination with taxes telling me I know it's
Speaker 1: not gonna fit and I'm supposed to do that or
Speaker 1: you should call like professional camp. Now in London, the
Speaker 1: question is not it's not even raised all taxes accessible.
Speaker 1: I've never seen someone looking at me with this like
Speaker 1: look of taking you. But I would rather not take
Speaker 1: you welcomes to taking the Metro. I mean, the Metro
Speaker 1: London is an option. It's not perfectly adapted, it's not
Speaker 1: perfectly accessible, far from that, but it's an option. Not
Speaker 1: all the stations are accessible, but sometimes I can use them.
Speaker 1: And you always have someone coming to me and asking
Speaker 1: me where I'm going to make sure once I lived
Speaker 1: there there's a lift functioning stuff like that. It's just like,
Speaker 1: I just feel like here, it's not special that I'm disabled.
Speaker 1: When I go in a restaurant, I don't even think before.
Speaker 1: I mean most of the time, not all the time,
Speaker 1: but most of the time I'm not thinking is the
Speaker 1: way they're gonna look at me like his embarrassed because
Speaker 1: it's a bit crowded, or because the toilets are on
Speaker 1: the my news floor on the first floor. Just like
Speaker 1: that's what I'm aspiring to, just like being one of
Speaker 1: like the others, you know what I mean. And in
Speaker 1: Paris and in France, we far from that. My goal
Speaker 1: is not to make hundred percent of the of the
Speaker 1: French city physically accessible, but I want d percent of
Speaker 1: all those citizens to just never discriminate someone because of
Speaker 1: his ability or an ability to put to do one
Speaker 1: step after the other. Infrastructures have to improve in the
Speaker 1: next three years, in the next decades, because the game
Speaker 1: is not just like two weeks, it's like years in,
Speaker 1: years before and decades after. It's all about legacy. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's clearer than ever now that the Paralympics has the
Speaker 1: potential to change a city for the good. But do
Speaker 1: we need to rely on the Paralympic Games to come
Speaker 1: around before a city's infrastructure is audited for access Obviously
Speaker 1: they should not be the case. Surely, only thinking about
Speaker 1: accessibility when a city is home to a summer or
Speaker 1: winter game is not enough. However important they are as
Speaker 1: a catalyst for change. Take London, for example, where I
Speaker 1: live and work as a wheelchair user. After the Twelve Games,
Speaker 1: we may have seen improvements to the levels of accessibility
Speaker 1: and inclusive design, such as on the DLR line. But
Speaker 1: even for a more economically developed country, one who has
Speaker 1: ratified the u n crp D and even has an
Speaker 1: established a Qualities Act to protect disabled people, there is
Speaker 1: still a long way to go before the UK is
Speaker 1: accessible for all. Katie Panic, a campaigner at Transport for All,
Speaker 1: went viral documenting her journeys around London streets on Twitter
Speaker 1: and has helped to bring recognition to some of the
Speaker 1: physical barriers facing disabled people on public transport in the
Speaker 1: Capitol and across the UK. Getting from A to B
Speaker 1: is about more than just the modal forms of transport,
Speaker 1: you know. It's there's no point having accessible buses if
Speaker 1: you can't get to the bus stops. So it's also
Speaker 1: about street space um and the built environment, and a
Speaker 1: huge part of that is about the pavements UM. So
Speaker 1: we see all sorts of problems um, you know, a
Speaker 1: lack of tactile paving, uneven steep pavements, narrow pavements, payments
Speaker 1: that are cluttered with objects. Katie isn't optimistic that change
Speaker 1: is happening at the right pace within the UK, especially
Speaker 1: if contrasted to the transport systems in neighboring European countries.
Speaker 1: I know the Netherlands has made a commitment to level boarding,
Speaker 1: I think within the next ten years. Barcelona their metro system,
Speaker 1: their their electro system is something like nine five accessible
Speaker 1: and when when they say accessible, they mean genuinely step
Speaker 1: free level boarding from from you can roll on, which
Speaker 1: is amazing. Eighty four stations on the London and Ground
Speaker 1: out of two hundred seventy are currently step free. However,
Speaker 1: obviously we know step free is a bit of a
Speaker 1: misnomer in this situation because some of those depend on
Speaker 1: the manual boarding rants. I think it's about half of
Speaker 1: them you need a manual boarding rants, And in terms
Speaker 1: of like genuinely step free level boarding stations, I think
Speaker 1: it's about forty out of two seventy. Perhaps we have
Speaker 1: to ask ourselves what we mean when we talk about accessibility,
Speaker 1: because inclusive design or universal design appears to mean something
Speaker 1: different depending on our perspective. What is accessible to one
Speaker 1: disabled person may not be to another, And it's impossible
Speaker 1: to achieve success if advocates, designers, architects and policymakers are
Speaker 1: all working to different goals. Well, let me turn up
Speaker 1: with two really big ideas. Dr Victor Panada is the
Speaker 1: president of the nonprofit World Enabled and leaves the campaign
Speaker 1: hashtag Cities for All, which encourages governments to design spaces
Speaker 1: for everyone. I aspector about the differences in approach. Disability
Speaker 1: isn't just a phenomenon of individual or even just a
Speaker 1: social construct. His ability is an interactive experience. I have
Speaker 1: what cat Holz talks about with the mismatch, but even
Speaker 1: more specifically, it's really an essence. It's a deprivation of
Speaker 1: human agency when interacting with the environment. With the neases
Speaker 1: that we have choices and we have opinions, that we
Speaker 1: have ideas, and we have desires, but they're all limited
Speaker 1: um in the way the world is constructed, the way
Speaker 1: that we interact. That's the world. What's those barriers exist.
Speaker 1: We're depraved of human agency. Now inclusive design, universal decide,
Speaker 1: and accessibility all seek to expand human agency the sea
Speaker 1: to and lock potential we see to open up you.
Speaker 1: Modalities have been around with the world around us, and
Speaker 1: so I think when we think about these words, we
Speaker 1: should first center on the fact that they all have
Speaker 1: a very similar and objective. We just jo identifying limity barriers,
Speaker 1: I lock human potential. So when we think about accessibility,
Speaker 1: we design for compliance and minimum standards. Imagine a standard
Speaker 1: accessible bathroom, the white plastic glob rails, the higher toilet
Speaker 1: at the wider door. I mean that as a wheelchair user,
Speaker 1: I have a level of independence, but the design is
Speaker 1: so clinical it doesn't give me a sense pride or agency.
Speaker 1: It reminds me that I'm disabled. It reminds me that
Speaker 1: I'm different. What if we could reimagine accessibility so that
Speaker 1: it could be beautiful, It could be stylish. We rarely
Speaker 1: put these words together, but we can and we must,
Speaker 1: because disabled people belong in beautiful spaces too. One way
Speaker 1: to achieve that is to find designers with a lived
Speaker 1: experience of disability themselves. We spoke to Christina Malin, head
Speaker 1: of inclusive design at Wonderman Thompson, and asked her more
Speaker 1: about her inclusive design process. The work that I do
Speaker 1: release stems from the fact that both my arms became
Speaker 1: paralyzed about eleven years ago due to motor neuron disease,
Speaker 1: and I was working as a marketer at the time
Speaker 1: and felt like I didn't see myself in the ads,
Speaker 1: but you know, of the world had a disability, So
Speaker 1: you know, I really can on this kind of adventure
Speaker 1: of helping brands create more inclusive advertising and then really
Speaker 1: shifted towards um, you know, product design in addition to marketing,
Speaker 1: because a lot of times the brand was saying, well,
Speaker 1: we have the marketing, but we're not sure how to
Speaker 1: make the products. Degrees created the world first adapted the
Speaker 1: order in in April of this year, the world's first
Speaker 1: accessible deoderance of the new there is to be no
Speaker 1: limits when something moves us. It had a hooked handle
Speaker 1: for one handed use magnetic closures to remove and replace
Speaker 1: the cap with ease, and all of the text details
Speaker 1: were mirrored in Brail to support those who are blind
Speaker 1: or have low vision. Wonderman Thompson and Christina lad the
Speaker 1: design process, taking in feedback from the disabled community the
Speaker 1: whole way through Windaman Thompson brought in different members of
Speaker 1: the community that are individual acts activists from different backgrounds, race, sexuality, ethnicity,
Speaker 1: and just talk to them about their problems with deoder
Speaker 1: and other problems with um different you know, CpG products,
Speaker 1: and then we did some sketches, brought them back to
Speaker 1: the disability community, guy them kind of you know, we
Speaker 1: like this one, we don't like that one. And there
Speaker 1: was mixed reviews on certain things. UM some lights really
Speaker 1: you know, highly potent sense others didna so UM. We
Speaker 1: made some revisions to the deodoant has yet to make
Speaker 1: it to market, but this one case study proves the
Speaker 1: value of engaging with the disabled community. It shows companies
Speaker 1: and designers that lived experience has expertise, and to truly
Speaker 1: create accessible products, it has to be created with us,
Speaker 1: not for us. Building accessibility into cities or physical products
Speaker 1: is without doubt a real challenge, but so often we
Speaker 1: are retrofitting access, a process which can be complex and costly.
Speaker 1: But the digital world, however, is newer and ever changing.
Speaker 1: Yet disability advocate and human rights lawyer Haven Gurmer tells
Speaker 1: us that even in this domain, we are not yet
Speaker 1: doing enough. The vast majority of videos online don't have capturing,
Speaker 1: and captaining helps provide access for death individuals. It also
Speaker 1: helps hearing people who are in sound off situations. It
Speaker 1: also both search engine optimization. The more text associated with
Speaker 1: your content, the more people will find your content disabled
Speaker 1: or non disabled. So one way to make the Internet
Speaker 1: more accessible is to increase capturing. It's it's really just
Speaker 1: good design. So people who use screen readers, people who
Speaker 1: use assistive devices, make sure there's testing by disabled people.
Speaker 1: Even better, include disabled designers as part of your team.
Speaker 1: Increase hiring of disabled people at all stages of the organization.
Speaker 1: Including disabled people as part of the team is essential
Speaker 1: for meaningful progress, But having disabled people lead the team
Speaker 1: is even better. Sam Latif is the company accessibility leader
Speaker 1: at P ANDNG and a blind British woman. Her lived
Speaker 1: experience and expertise resulted in company wide innovation. Companies are
Speaker 1: waking up to the fact that people are one living longer,
Speaker 1: and that we're not all born with a disability. You know,
Speaker 1: we can develop one at any time through age or circumstance.
Speaker 1: People with disabilities, be it cognitive, sensitive, sensory, or physical,
Speaker 1: have got money to spend. The more inclusively designed the product,
Speaker 1: the higher the chance that the disabled person can and
Speaker 1: will access it and will continue to access it. Telling
Speaker 1: products apart is an ongoing challenge for me and millions
Speaker 1: of blind people. So many products feel the same from
Speaker 1: the outside, but the stuff inside is different, you know,
Speaker 1: full fat and low fat milk, catch up or male
Speaker 1: shampoo or conditioner, and sometimes even more serious stuff like
Speaker 1: toothpaste or hair removal cream. The list goes on and on,
Speaker 1: and businesses need to recognize the magnitude both of this
Speaker 1: problem for blind people and the growth opportunity for them.
Speaker 1: I created a disability Challenge which are allowed our senior
Speaker 1: leaders and decision makers to experience for themselves what it's
Speaker 1: like one not to see well. And next I started
Speaker 1: to you know, asked them to tell products apart, including
Speaker 1: shampoo and conditioner. And through this experience they realized, you know,
Speaker 1: the problem that blind people experience. I then brought to
Speaker 1: their attention the subtle solution that I had placed on
Speaker 1: the bottles, which would indicate to them that I raised
Speaker 1: stripe with shampoo and I raised circle mint conditioner. And
Speaker 1: this is a big har moment for them, you know. Finally,
Speaker 1: I then asked them to tell me if they would
Speaker 1: be up for making their products accessible and inclusive in
Speaker 1: this way and the wholeheartedly egrees just have to rise up. Skateboarding, surfing.
Speaker 1: We just keep going like eat up on the board,
Speaker 1: keep going, keep going, and never give up man dancing.
Speaker 1: Let people know what. In two thousand and sixteen, Tommy
Speaker 1: Hill Figure created their first adaptive clothing collection, My ability
Speaker 1: is stronger than My disability Boy with CP Surfing, I'm
Speaker 1: on staff. Esther Berberg, the company's senior vice president for
Speaker 1: sustainability and Innovation, told us the community engagement is where
Speaker 1: they also began. We started the line basically in twenties six,
Speaker 1: and it was really out of inspiration also from a
Speaker 1: lady called Mindy Schreyer she works with She has an
Speaker 1: organization called Runway of Dreams, and she always adapted the
Speaker 1: fashion for her son, who has a disability, and she
Speaker 1: basically approached the organization and said, why can I not
Speaker 1: find fashion? And we were so inspired. So our first
Speaker 1: collection basically started with that. UM. I really resonated also
Speaker 1: with Tommy himself because from his personal background, he's very
Speaker 1: well aware of what it means to have children with
Speaker 1: special special needs. So yeah, that resonated with him and
Speaker 1: I think also with the spirit of the company in general. UM.
Speaker 1: So we started with that, and at first collection I
Speaker 1: think had a lot of adaptations that were mainly focused on,
Speaker 1: for instance, larger openings or different openings or more openings too. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, to help people with braces or prosthetics to
Speaker 1: actually access the closing. UM. We had magnetic closure stare
Speaker 1: to also make sure that you can open things, for
Speaker 1: instance with one hand. Um. And then we we evolved
Speaker 1: from there. Tommy hill Figure's journey began through a collaboration
Speaker 1: with Runway of Dreams, but has evolved due to an
Speaker 1: increased opportunity for innovation and also Tommy's personal experience with disability.
Speaker 1: Three of his children are autistic. When the idea came
Speaker 1: up to do something a bit different for design with
Speaker 1: people with special needs, I jumped down the idea right
Speaker 1: away because I thought it was fantastic. I couldn't believe
Speaker 1: other people weren't doing it, other designers weren't doing it.
Speaker 1: But for large companies, the promise of innovation and the
Speaker 1: personal drive to create a better world may not be enough.
Speaker 1: Leaders want to know is this a business opportunity? As
Speaker 1: to told us more about the fascinating ways digital tech, accessibility,
Speaker 1: and fashion collide, and firmly believes that their adaptive collections
Speaker 1: are a gateway to a wider market. So what I
Speaker 1: think is a really exciting field is the is the
Speaker 1: combination of tech and digitization with fashion. So we already
Speaker 1: see some some interesting innovations in the area of for instance,
Speaker 1: like conductive yarns that give you information, so like sweaters
Speaker 1: that give you information about the wearer's movements for instance,
Speaker 1: or a wearer's temperature or other well being elements. Um,
Speaker 1: and we've seen I think it was what was it
Speaker 1: called on THENNA I think from Japan, really cool device
Speaker 1: where actually uh for people with hearing disability, they would
Speaker 1: translate noise into vibrations and light um and then you
Speaker 1: can make that into a hair accessory. So that those
Speaker 1: kind of things UM, I think will be coming up
Speaker 1: much more so the smart SmartWare that can help help
Speaker 1: provide extra functionality. But where I get really enthusiastic, I
Speaker 1: think is the opportunity for made on the design on demand.
Speaker 1: So for now, it's it is really like, even when
Speaker 1: we do adaptive, we have to make a choice and
Speaker 1: we say, okay, it's it's that it's going to be
Speaker 1: that adaptation to that T shirt, and then that's what
Speaker 1: we're going to produce, and then you have to have
Speaker 1: at least so many hundred pieces of it. I think
Speaker 1: where it gets really interesting if we can get to
Speaker 1: a space where we can say, okay, you can order,
Speaker 1: you can go online, you can say I want that
Speaker 1: T shirt and I wanted with that adaptation, or I
Speaker 1: wanted with that sizing UM and and the technology is
Speaker 1: really developing super rapidly around three D design and manufacturing
Speaker 1: on demand. So it will click, I think fairly soon,
Speaker 1: and I expect within the next five years we'll definitely
Speaker 1: see possibilities becoming more a little bit more mainstream. But
Speaker 1: we have seen, for instance, is that seventy of the
Speaker 1: consumers that we get are new and then seventy one
Speaker 1: percent of those actually go on and shop also from
Speaker 1: the mainline. Uh, and the average order value of people
Speaker 1: that shop the adaptive line is much much higher. So
Speaker 1: that in itself also indicates that, yeah, there is a
Speaker 1: real business case for this. The business case for disability
Speaker 1: inclusion is becoming clearer. There are over one billion disabled
Speaker 1: people in the world, a number that is ever growing
Speaker 1: with COVID, and the community's annual discretionary income is over
Speaker 1: one point seven trillion dollars. This catches the attention of business,
Speaker 1: but does it help us bridge the gap to a
Speaker 1: more inclusive world. Jane Burke is one of our executive
Speaker 1: producers and a leader an inclusive design and she takes
Speaker 1: a different approach. There's one billion people in the world
Speaker 1: who are disabled. It's a population the size of China.
Speaker 1: We often hear and then we'll hear that the spending
Speaker 1: power of disabled people in terms of their discretionary income
Speaker 1: is one point seven trillion U s dollars bring their
Speaker 1: family and friends in and that's eight trillion US dollars,
Speaker 1: which does I will be totally honest and say turn
Speaker 1: the heads of leaders, because when everything is about a
Speaker 1: profit and loss sheet, eight trillion dollars is so much
Speaker 1: money in terms of trying to activate that audience. But
Speaker 1: I have really stepped back from solely using those statistics
Speaker 1: as ways in which to enter into a conversation because
Speaker 1: it places disabled people as customers who need to be served,
Speaker 1: who need to be designed for, who need to be
Speaker 1: captured and captivated, rather than a methodology of code design
Speaker 1: which invites them in to be part of the process.
Speaker 1: It focuses disabled people as spenders rather than as creators,
Speaker 1: rather than as colleagues. So now the language that I
Speaker 1: use is about did you know that in globally the
Speaker 1: disability unemployment rate is between fifty and seventy percent? And
Speaker 1: then I talk about disabled people being innovative by design
Speaker 1: because we live in a world that wasn't designed for us.
Speaker 1: We have to move through systems and policies that were
Speaker 1: never designed with us and with us in mind. So
Speaker 1: we have all of these ideas and innovations and creativity
Speaker 1: that are naturally within us. So my proposition to companies
Speaker 1: as now, don't think about the money that we're going
Speaker 1: to spend in your business. Think about how we're going
Speaker 1: to make your products, your culture, and the way in
Speaker 1: which you work better in ways in which you could
Speaker 1: never imagine. So what comes next? How do we include
Speaker 1: disabled people in the design process, creating space for them
Speaker 1: to lead, innovate, and build a more inclusive and accessible
Speaker 1: world for all. Here is sound Atief on what she
Speaker 1: hopes to see in the decade ahead. My dream is
Speaker 1: that inclusive design is built in all products and experiences.
Speaker 1: There are no barriers for anyone to access anything. I
Speaker 1: sincerely hope there comes a time in every company knows
Speaker 1: and implements inclusive design from the beginning, from the outset,
Speaker 1: resulting in more inclusive experiences for everyone that no one
Speaker 1: has left out, that we're all included and able to
Speaker 1: experience anything through choice. I think in ten years from
Speaker 1: now there there will be significant progress. The world will
Speaker 1: be more inclusive and accessible. I can imagine that products
Speaker 1: will become easier to identify, easier to open for everyone.
Speaker 1: I can see the employment rates for disabled people go
Speaker 1: from less than twenty today to more than sev in
Speaker 1: the future. We've learned today that so much progress has
Speaker 1: been made to make the world more accessible and inclusive,
Speaker 1: but it's not enough right now. These stories are exceptional,
Speaker 1: but they need to become the norm, because when the
Speaker 1: world has not been designed for us, when we face
Speaker 1: endless mismatches, the only choice we have is to adapt
Speaker 1: to the world, compromising our needs and our ambitions, forcing
Speaker 1: us to seek out medical or technological interventions that appear
Speaker 1: to fix us. This is known as a medical model
Speaker 1: of dealing with disability, and it's outdated and it's outright dangerous.
Speaker 1: Surely it's in our power to fix the world instead,
Speaker 1: so that we can live in it successfully. What if
Speaker 1: instead of looking to fix the needs of disabled people,
Speaker 1: we lived in a world where our environment matched our
Speaker 1: needs instead with the word disabled need to be repurposed, redefined,
Speaker 1: or totally eradicated. Design is such a universal medium and
Speaker 1: impacts our lives in a myriad of ways, and yet
Speaker 1: careless design discriminates every day. It feels like we have
Speaker 1: to challenge the norm design from the start, demand designed
Speaker 1: for all, not at the end of a process, but
Speaker 1: at the start. The stories today have proven that it
Speaker 1: can be done. It feels like this change is beginning
Speaker 1: to happen but change is relentless and we need to
Speaker 1: try and ensure that all design is universal for us
Speaker 1: all from tomorrow. Are you a designer who wants to
Speaker 1: know more about inclusive design or are you a disabled
Speaker 1: person with an invaluable insight? How would you like to
Speaker 1: change the world? Join this conversation at hashtag equal to
Speaker 1: Join me next time when we'll be looking at employment
Speaker 1: exploring what it's like to have a disability in business
Speaker 1: and how employers can make truly inclusive workplaces a reality.
Speaker 1: I've been your host, Sophie Morgan. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: These podcasts have been made possible because of the support
Speaker 1: of Procter and Gamble P and g share our ambition
Speaker 1: to create a more equal world, a world where everyone
Speaker 1: can have equal access and the opera tunity to thrive.
Speaker 1: We are very grateful for their partnership in making these
Speaker 1: conversations a reality. Of people with a direct involvement in
Speaker 1: the production of the podcast, including guests identify as disabled.
Speaker 1: This podcast was created by Greg Nugent, co founder of
Speaker 1: Harder Than You Think. I'm Sophie Morgan, your host and
Speaker 1: executive producer. Fellow executive producers are Chanaid Burke, Greg Nugent,
Speaker 1: Barnaby Spurrier, Laura i'ms, Mark Pritchard, and Kimberly Dobrenner. Thank
Speaker 1: you to the i PC and Channel four for their
Speaker 1: support and use of archive material. Thanks to our podcast
Speaker 1: production partner, Stripped Media, and also to Seneca Women for
Speaker 1: their assistance with distributing this show. If you want to
Speaker 1: follow the equal to story and join the conversation hashtag
Speaker 1: equal to, go to our website ht Whitey dot world,
Speaker 1: where you will also find the transcript and video versions
Speaker 1: of the podcast, along with subtitles and a b SL
Speaker 1: signed version in the coming days. M